The 5 Best Male-Female Rock & Roll Duos

There’s something completely fascinating about two-person rock bands. Perhaps it’s the members’ ability to seemingly be able to do it all in a genre that typically includes 4 or 5 members per band; maybe it’s their ability to show us that rock bands don’t need so many people if they contain truly talented musicians. Those things are part of the appeal, but the most important aspect of any two-person band is the chemistry the audience is allowed to witness between the two members, on stage and on record. This chemistry gets much more interesting when the members are a man and a woman (sorry, Black Keys fans). The five bands on this list include siblings, former lovers, best friends, and possibly enemies.

5. Sleigh Bells

Sleigh Bells consists of just-friends guitarist Derek Miller and singer Alexis Krauss of Brooklyn, New York. The two make a strange mix of homicidal heavy metal and children’s ditties, a dynamic they also explore in their album artwork, which has included cheerleaders and bloodstained sneakers. They’ve also built the reputation of giving a killer live show. “Sleigh Bells demolish whatever space they perform in, whether backed with stacks of Marshall amps in front of thousands at Austin’s Moody Theater or prowling the stage at LPR, a space intimate enough for them to hold hands with people in the front row,” Rolling Stone raves. The duo’s newest album, Bitter Rivals, dropped on October 8 and is being supported by a world tour.